Drone shot down in Ascension Parish feud

GONZALES - Sheriff's deputies said they're investigating a drone shot down during a dispute between two neighbors in Ascension Parish.

Aaron Hernandez said he was flying his $1,200 remote-controlled quadcopter Monday evening at his father's home when his neighbors took a shot at it. Hernandez said the quadcopter was disabled but still hovering, and he ran out to speak with the people who shot it.

He said after a short argument he left, taking his 7-year-old niece with him, and the neighbors shot the drone out of the sky.

"It scared her, she started crying instantly," Hernandez said. "She went out there with me, and I said 'Look, we need to leave.'"

Hernandez said his neighbors had voiced objections to the drone flying over their land in the past couple of weeks, calling it an invasion of their privacy and calling the sheriff's office at one point. He said the drone had been flying about 200 feet over a horse field belonging to the neighbors, when the shooting happened. It carried a camera which he says he's in the past to take aerial pictures of the surrounding landscape.

Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Col. Bobby Webre confirmed they are investigating, but said they do not expect to press charges against anyone. Webre said there is no law in Louisiana that applies to this situation. Instead, he says people should be logical and respectful when it comes to flying drones over someone else's property.